CASCA/SANA2016 panel CFP: Solidarity in Oral History and Anthropology

Call for Participants: Roundtable on Solidarity in Oral History and
Anthropology



Anthropology and oral history have distinct and powerful ethical
guidelines. In oral history, the co-authored interview is itself the
foundational product of the research relationship. Building on as
assumption of shared authority, oral historians negotiate agreements with
their narrators to make these interviews public, using their real names, in
archives. The narrator retains the right to retract their interview at any
time, and often remains involved in the process of analysis, editing, and
public presentation. In anthropology, the published product(s) of the
research is often the only public artifact of the research relationship,
and it is typical to obscure the identities of participants and places.



As politically engaged scholars and activist researchers working at the
intersections of these two practices, we have struggled to define
solidarity and balance the sometimes conflicting demands of solidarity with
different groups: co-researchers, colleagues, individual narrators, and the
broader communities in which we work. In this roundtable session we will
ask what is generated by the productive tensions between the ethics of oral
history and anthropology.



If interested, please contact Amy Starecheski (aas39@columbia.edu) and Joey
Plaster (joseph.plaster@yale.edu) with a brief statement of interest by
January 25, 2015.


Amy Starecheski, PhD
Associate Director
Columbia Oral History MA Program
www.oralhistory.columbia.edu
212-851-4395